1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a connector for electrically connecting a card, which can be inserted and pulled out, to a lead wire. More particularly, the present invention relates to a connector for a memory card, for example.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, a connector for electrically connecting a card, which can be inserted and pulled out, to lead wires is known. To electrically connect the card to the lead wires, the connector includes a housing, to and from which the card can be fitted and pulled out along a surface of the housing and a plurality of contacts built in the housing and having both ends thereof exposed. One of the exposed ends of each contact (hereinafter called “lead wire connection portion”) can be connected to the lead wire. The other of the exposed ends of each connector (hereinafter called “card connection portion”) can be connected to the card under a loaded state.
Large connectors are produced by a method having the steps of forming the contacts, separately forming the housing, and fitting the contacts into the housing. On the other hand, small connectors are formed by a method having the steps of fixing the contacts in a mold and injecting a resin under this state into the mold so as to integrally mold the contacts and the housing (refer to JP-A-11-195467, for example).
In the integral molding method described above, support pins for supporting the contacts are so arranged as to protrude into the mold for preventing a positioning error of the contacts due to fluidization of the resin inside the mold. Therefore, even when the molten resin is injected into the mold, the resin does not fill the spaces occupied by the support pins, and traces of the support pins are formed as holes in the housing.
On the other hand, the connectors completed are subjected to various tests such as an inspection with eye, a withstand voltage test, a conduction test, and so forth, to secure product quality. More concretely, the inspection with eye checks whether any deformation exists at the lead wire connection portion of the contact and its card connection portion, whether any distortion exists in the housing and whether the adjacent contacts do not keep contact with each other. The conduction test checks whether electric conduction is secured between a connected part of each contact to the lead wire and its connected part to the card. More specifically, the conduction test is carried out while a probe for a connector conductor test is brought into contact with the lead wire connection portion of the contact and its card connection portion. However, it is sometimes difficult according to this method to stably conduct the conduction test.
To solve this problem, it might be possible to employ a method that inserts the probe into the hole formed at the trace of each support pin formed in the housing. According to this method, however, the probe cannot be inserted because the hole of the support pin is small.
It might also be possible to separately form a communication hole for the probe in the housing. According to this method, however, production steps become more complicated and production efficiency of the connector may drop.